Am I getting a decent deal?

avelanchefan

Okay to make a long story semi-short my wife has a 2006 new beetle convertible. We have enjoyed in a lot, but it has been a very impracticable car for a five member household. It's on a 4 year lease with 20 payments left. Payoff is 19,500.

So we have been car shopping for the last week. We first stopped at a Ford dealership to look at an Escape Limited edition. Leather, Navi, all the bells and whistles for 25,900 and change. They were going to take 1000 off the 25,900, but were only going to give me 12,000 for the buggy. They would not budge on either end. So we walked.

Stopped into VW just to see what they would offer, they offered more for the buggy, but basically wanted me to payoff the lease in full. Finance manager said leases were not really made to get out of. This part I understand. I/we are realistic about the aspect of not getting out of the lease. Plus we are not desperate about it. So VW was a no go.

Stopped by Nissan because they had a decked out Rogue for sale. Drove it, loved it, would not deal at all on the sale price nor the Bug. Again they offered me 12,000 for the Bug.

At this point we decided maybe it is the wrong time to be doing this. But we decide to stop into a Chevy dealership and the look at the 2008 Equinox. We like it after a test drive. And start doing the numbers again. Again basically the same thing. The Equinox is being offered at 20,081. They say they cannot go any lower on this. (Sticker is 24,500) They come back on a buggy offer of 12,000 dollars. They will not budge on either one. Again.

Sales guy leaves and me and the wife decide this car thing is not for us right now. Guy comes back and explains to me that they have 3 2008 Trail Blazers. They are willing to deal on these a little more because It is the end of the year, and this will be the last year they make them (this being the 2009 models). Now I have always liked the TB's just never thought about them because I hated the price tags on them. We drove one, we both really liked it. It was stickered at 29,000, they came back with an offer of 21,000 and 14,500 for the buggy. Payments are now in our range.

We left to think about it. Which they hated. I have some reservations about the TB due to gas prices increasing in the future. But most of our driving is highway.

BTW- Every dealership was empty except Chevy. Nissan was the scariest of all. One sales person, crickets chirping in the showroom. Chevy had three customers that included us. VW empty on a Saturday afternoon with 5 sales guys standing around. Ford was empty with only 3 sales people on last Friday morning.

shawn474

I shopped for the Trailblazer a few years back and found the safety ratings and reliability ratings significantly lacking. I decided to wait at that time. Not sure how much they have improved since. I know if you're willing to get a used SUV, Carmax is blowing them off the lot right now. Will Chevy honor the 14,500 trade-in if you don't buy from them?

avelanchefan

Not sure on that, but I have to roll some of the negative equity into the payment, so buying a used vehicle is basically out.

shawn474

If you go to Carmax, they will roll the negative equity into your new loan. I got blasted with an Isuzu Rodeo lemon a lot of years back and had to roll 6,000 into a used car loan through carmax. Just a thought.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Shawn

avelanchefan

Will look into it. Thanks Shawn.

Sean

PS-Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

disneyjoe7

shawn474 wrote: »

If you go to Carmax, they will roll the negative equity into your new loan. I got blasted with an Isuzu Rodeo lemon a lot of years back and had to roll 6,000 into a used car loan through carmax. Just a thought.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Shawn

I enjoy with the Carmax idea, they will give you a fair market value of buggy so you will know what games the others are playing. You can get a trade in value good for 7 days without doing anything with them.

zeppage2

Not to be controversial, but...

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/stupid_tax/index.cfm?FuseAction=dspContent&intContentID=10628

shack

shawn474 wrote: »

If you go to Carmax, they will roll the negative equity into your new loan. I got blasted with an Isuzu Rodeo lemon a lot of years back and had to roll 6,000 into a used car loan through carmax. Just a thought.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Shawn

Nothing like starting out on a new loan with not only the 20-30% depreciation on the new car the second you drive off the lot but on top add $6,000 - $7,000 in shortfall from the VW....:rolleyes: Now you have a car loan where you are 50% upside down from the beginning. If gas prices go back up the chance of selling the TB for even half of what you owe will be slim and none. This is not a good idea. It is exactly the type of stuff that gets borrowers in huge bind they can't get out of. As hard as it may seem, your best bet is to keep the VW till the end of the lease...then walk away and then buy what you need. The savings you may experience now will be eaten up by the loss you are taking on the VW.

One option might be to see if you can get someone to assume the lease on the VW. Then you could go buy a new vehicle. It is a longshot, but I have seen it happen a time or two.

BTW...I have yet to see a decent deal come from Carmax. EVERY single time they have priced the vehicle a minimum of 10% over book value. I would never buy a car from them.

shack

disneyjoe7 wrote: »

I enjoy with the Carmax idea, they will give you a fair market value of buggy so you will know what games the others are playing. You can get a trade in value good for 7 days without doing anything with them.

You actually believe that? They overcharge on what they sell and lowball the trade-in on every deal I have seen.

disneyjoe7

Yes I believe that I owned a troublesome Chevy which I was upside down on Carmax or Automax offered the best trade in for it. This offer was $500 over which a broker wanted to give me for it, the broker in which I brought my wifes new car through an auto auction.


So it broke down like this.

2001 Chevy Malibu 42000 miles 3 years old owe $7800 trade $4500 (brought used with 12000 miles prior repaint caused a really low trade, car keyed before I owned it all news to me later )

2003 Acura TL-S 19000 miles 1 year old $22800.

Without higher trade value that would have caused me additional $500 bucks out of pocket. Armed with this knowledge value caused the broker to up his offer for trade.

sucks2beme

Sorry to here you're stuck. It amazes me that there's even loans still out
there for upside down buyers. I bet the interest rate is high on that loan.
One way or another, Carmax or anyone esle is NOT going to take a beating
on a car trade. If they give you more trade, they don't give as much discount
on the new one.
If the VW is running good, stick it out. Let the lease company eat the
$$$ loss. Be happy it's a lease. Whatever you do, don't go into the
hole to get a vehicle you really don't want.
I saw a couple of guys get into a lot of crap like that when I was younger.
Fate has a habit of piling on. You take a $5-7k shot on that one,
then something like a wreck totals the new one. Now you're so far under
you're riding a bike like the credit report spokesguy.

avelanchefan

Thanks guys for the advice. I think I am going to walk away from the deal. The VW is fine, no issues with it at all. I was just seeing what kind of deals they had going on when you hear about all the offers they had. In no way am I desperate to get rid of the lease.

Polk user

Just stay with the lease for now. The market is still volatile, the big 3 still might go under. Gas prices WILL eventually go up again and there is a good chance there will be a large increase in the federal tax on a gallon of gas to combat global warming (BS). Avoid trucks like the plague. There will be new regulations on gas mileage and carbon emissions in a year or 2 so just stay with the lease unless someone is gonna give u a HUGE deal where no money comes out of your pocket.

eloplayspolo

i stoped reading after a couple posts... but take a look at a Toyota Highlander. U can get them for 18,500 if its an add car. if u want all the bells and whistles..... u can get NICER leather for about 900 and you can put a much nicer navi in for about 800.
Not to mention that a Toyota is a far better car than a ford.

ND13

Carmax dealerships are the biggest scammers in the industry. I have always been able to under-cut there "ONE-PRICE" shopping". They can ALLOW more, because they have more mark-up to play with. Just a hint, never look at anything but trade difference.

Go with a one to two year old, low-mileage vehicle. Let the original owner take the big hit. You can also look at another lease. Go as short as possible, that way you can be out of the negative equity sooner and get to start fresh.

eloplayspolo

Polk user wrote: »

Just stay with the lease for now. The market is still volatile, the big 3 still might go under.

The us will not allow the big 3 to go under, they cant and they wont.... and no matter how much they say they dont want to give them money.... they are going to end up giving them more than they will say and they will do it a few times. I wouldn't buy an american car unless i HAD to.. they just are nowhere near a honda or toyota.

When is the last time u saw a Ford passenger car commercial or a dodge car commericial (besides the magnum, which is ugly and a gas hog). Dont even get me started with chevy.... they have trucks that say HEAVY DUTY across the front of the grill. they might as well say GLOBAL WARMING on them. its a complete joke. and it really makes me sick that the CEOs running the big 3 don't have the basic common sense to not fly a private jet to a meeting where tehy will be discussing lack of eco friend production.

1000s and 1000s of jobs are going to be lost no matter how much money is given to them. every company trying to survive does this, its a shame.

gdb

I think they were just testing your inteligence, soon they'll be selling cars below cost because they'll have to!(at least the three that are in TROUBLE)
You might help yourself a little if you read the book "don't get taken every time", it's helped me negotiate with the "vultures" !!
http://www.dontgettakeneverytime.com/
Good Luck!!:)

shawn474

shack, I never said it was a good idea; just an option to get out of the lease and get the car he wanted. I agree with what you said. Is carmax the biggest scam on the market? I don't know. Dealerships never were willing to negotiate the way that they do now; they changed their practices in customer relations because of places like Carmax. I can only speak from experience that I have traded 3 cars into Carmax and each time got at least 10% over what the dealerships were willing to offer. Can you get a better deal than carmax? Absolutely. However, there are a hell of a lot of who are willing to deal with them and pay a little more than sit in a dealership for a whole weekend working through the BS shenanigans of a dealership to save a couple hundred bucks.

disneyjoe7

^^^ Right on

shack

Noel (ND13) has been in the car business for many years and has a pretty strong opinon about Carmax. I have been in the banking business for 30 years and financed a lot of vehicles and I have yet to see a good deal out of them. My wife manages the largest credit union in our town and will tell you pretty much the same story. Some may feel they are getting something of value dealing with them. I for one never will.

disneyjoe7

I think you can get a bad deal from anyone, knowledge is needed for everything. Knowing nothing and you get screwed from everyone. But all in all I wouldn't broke a lease just my $.02.